Mark Sanford?

The news today that South Carolina gov. Mark Sanford went AWOL from family and office because of an extramarital affair causes two questions to rattle around in my head:

• When will the American public realize that a Republican officeholder who pounds the "family values" drum is probably having a sex scandal, divorce, or affair?
• Would it have been less harmful for Sanford if the original rumor of his whereabouts—namely, hiking the Appalachian Trail on Naked Hiking Day—had turned out to be true?